Memory devices are employed as internal storage areas in a computer or other electronic equipment. One specific type of memory used to store data in a computer is random access memory (RAM). RAM is typically used as the major on-chip as well as off-chip storage unit in a computing system, and is generally volatile in that once power is turned off, all data stored in the RAM is lost.
In the computing environment, programs and data are held in memory (i.e., random access memory (RAM)). Further, the central processing unit (CPU) is separate from the memory and can perform computations and logic functions. In recent years, processor speeds have increased significantly and memory has improved in density (i.e., the ability to store more data in less space). However, as memory density and processor speeds have increased, the data transfer rate between the CPU and the memory has not improved much and created a bottleneck. The data transfer bottleneck between the CPU and the memory is called the von-Neumann bottleneck. In this scenario, the CPU will spend an increasing amount of time idle waiting for data to be fetched from memory. Overcoming this von-Neumann bottleneck will reduce latency and improve processing speeds in the computing environment.